NOTE: I know that, canonically, Gilan either never had an apprentice or somehow it was considered too irrelevant to mention that he had a kid running around for five years (like any single physical characteristic except being tall...). However, he is one of the best rangers so it would be odd if he were not asked to pass his skills on to others. Not sure how this fits around the Brotherband timeline, but the RA universe timeline is a trainwreck anyway as we all know. One more chapter coming up to conclude the series.
CHAPTER 6 - Gilan
Alistair was suffering in the sweltering heat. Well, what to him felt like sweltering heat. It was, in fact, a very pleasant summer day to other people. Note that 'other people' included his mentor, Gilan.
He simply was not born for this climate, he thought as he felt more sweat run down his back to drench his shirt even further. He was born for the pleasantly cool climate of Norgate. That is where Alistair had grown up, and been recruited by Gilan. And then Gilan just had to get himself promoted to Whitby fief, and drag him along to the south. And more regularly than Alistair liked they had to cover for rangers Halt and Will as they went on missions, which meant going to Redmont where it is even hotter.
Oh, how the tables had turned. The first few years of his apprenticeship, in the pleasant snowy cold of Norgate, Gilan had constantly complained. About the cold, the wetness, the darkness, about how he was sure he was getting frostbite and would lose multiple toes. Alistair would have soon gotten tired of that if not for the impressive vocabulary of swear words he could pick up from his mentor's cursing whenever the man yet again slipped on a patch of ice.
These days it was Alistair doing all the complaining about the weather, and Gilan wondering at all the creative swear words in his repertoire. The boy had been so polite when they first met, and surely Gilan had been mindful of what language he used around his apprentice? Only after Halt pointed out that Alistair said a hibernian curse he could only have learned from Gilan (who had in turn accidentally learned it from Halt), did he accept that he himself was entirely responsible for corrupting his apprentice.
Surreptitiously Alistair tried to smell himself. He wished Gilan would at least let him take off his cloak, but that was apparently essential for camouflage when riding in full view on the highway. Well, his problem then if he had to ride next to a smelly apprentice.
Gilan's voice startled him out of his reverie.
"You know Al, there is less than half a year left before the gathering."
Alistair gave a long-suffering sigh. "Yes, I know what that means."
It meant they had to start plotting how to capture ranger Halt on the way to the gathering grounds.
While Gilan was without a doubt a highly competent ranger and a wonderful mentor, there were quite a few moments where Alistair felt like he was the adult in the situation. This yearly game was the worst of it.
Over the past four-and-a-half years he had been thrown into moats, been forced to sleep in a tree, gotten all of his arrows broken - twice, had the hair on his arms singed off, had his entire eyebrows singed off (separate incidents)... And none of it due to actual ranger business, but just because of failed attempts to trap ranger Halt. Or as a result of said ranger's ire at these stupid games.
Alistair looked sternly at his mentor. "No more fires."
"No more fires.", Gilan assented sheepishly. "But we need an extra good plan this year! It is the last time I have you around to help me plan, if we don't get him now I never will."
Alistair shook his head. "Just one extra good plan will not do. He always figures it out somehow. What we need is backup plans. After he figures out our plan he is lulled into a false sense of security, because we always give in after the first attempt. That is when we should really strike."
Gilan's eyes gleamed maniacally. "I like the sound of that!"
Once again Alistair wondered who really should be in charge of whom here. He also wondered how on earth he was going to get any training done when no doubt Gilan would now be single mindedly focused on developing backup plans for the backup plans during the remaining half year of his apprenticeship.
Thankfully he was quite far ahead on his studies, and the plotting actually made for good exercises in tactics for military campaigns. Or for catching bears, depending on whether you consider plans C.2 until F.1.8 or plan B-IV. Only time could tell what approach is more effective.
Alistair lay flat on his back behind a fallen tree regretting every single one of his life choices. Plan A had failed. Gilan, trying to untangle himself from a mass of ropes, glanced over to him with an absolutely inadequate amount of sympathy.
"This is technically going according to plan, we were always expecting him to foil the first attempt. We will strike again at midnight. Make sure to act normal the rest of the day!"
Gilan's cheery tone did not appease Alistair at all.
"We can't use plan 4.d anymore though, since the whole effectiveness hinges on being able to frame Will for the result and he has been delayed. B-IV could only work in rainy weather and we already discarded B-V and B-VI."
"Ever the optimist you are. We are going to get him this year whatever it takes."
"I did it! I finally did it!"
"No Gilan you did not.", a voice piped up from the audience. It was Crowley. "Your apprentice did! Come give him the silver thingy, if this doesn't show Alistair is ready to graduate I do not know what will."
Alistair felt faintly uncomfortable at the way the commandant drew the attention to him. He realized why when he glanced over to the trees and locked eyes with ranger Halt.
Still suspended over the moat in a rope harness, a seething mad ranger Halt stared at the younger man with all the dignity one can reasonably muster when hanging upside down with leaves in your hair. Alistair would absolutely pay for this. But as Halt stared him down Alistair also noticed something else - grudging respect. Perhaps he could do some damage control by offering to team up with the old ranger from now on.
One year later Gilan would find himself wrapped in a large net, suspended between two trees over that same moat, and curse his very existence.
"Your work?", Crowley asked Halt. Quite superfluously, as the grin on his face said enough.
"With a little help from his former apprentice. Lovely how eager they always are to stab their mentor in the back the moment they graduate."
Crowley shook his head. "The only reason I sleep soundly during the gathering, is that I have no former apprentices, and you are kept occupied by yours."
Halt grinned, but thoughtfully this time. "It has done Gilan good, to have the boy around. He has grown more confident. He always was, when it comes to solo work, but I know he still struggled with having responsibility over other people."
That triggered a memory in Crowley's mind. He briefly debated whether to say something or not.
"Did Gilan ever tell you what he asked me after he scouted Alistair as a potential recruit?"
"Well, if you'd let him take the boy on I presume?"
Crowley shook his head. "He asked if I thought you would be willing to train another apprentice."
"Why?", Halt frowned. "Gilan found the boy, he was already stationed in a large fief. He certainly had enough experience, nearly ten years more than I had when I started training him. It was about time he got an apprentice."
"That is what I told him. Moreover, it would have been unfair to Alistair to send him to the other side of the country, weeks away from his family, when a ranger perfectly capable of training him was right there in Norgate."
"Then why?"
"Celtica."
It clicked.
"He still felt guilty about that? Will and I both forgave him ages ago. There was nothing to forgive to begin with really. He made the right call, there just were some unforeseen circumstances."
"You know that, and I know that, and so did Gilan - on a pragmatic level. Emotionally it took him years to really come to terms with it, as you well know. And the prospect of being in charge of an apprentice again raked up some memories."
"I wish he had just talked to me about it. I would have bashed some sense back into his skull."
Crowley raised one eyebrow. "Talked about it with the man who had to commit treason and get himself banished to 'fix HIS mistake' as he considers it? He loves you as a second father and knows you feel the same, but he also knows that whole dynamic goes a lot further with Will being an orphan and all that. I can understand why he would be reluctant to bring up this particular subject."
Halts mind was briefly taken back to a very dark place. He truly never resented Gilan for his part in the ordeal. However, having to hand in his silver oakleaf was still the second worst moment in his life, preceded only by watching that wolfship sail off with Will on board. Worse even than the various assassination attempts by his brother, as he had not had much of a life to lose when those occured. Getting used to having close friends and a purposeful life and then having to give that all up had been infinitely worse. But Halt was not the one whose troubles they were discussing here.
Somewhat distracted, he made an effort to focus back on the discussion and Gilan's situation.
"What did you tell him that convinced him in the end?"
"That you would not be training the boy, period. Even if you had wanted to, I was already planning the special task force back then. I would be sending you on all the most dangerous missions, often far away from home. That is not possible with an apprentice in tow, and many can train an apprentice but I needed you specifically to get the task force off the ground."
Halt nodded. "And while Gilan is not vain, he knows deep down that he is the second best ranger in the corps. Third these days I suppose, after Will, but definitely still second back then when Will had only just graduated. So having to face his fears was better than letting you foist the boy off on a less skilled ranger."
"True. And on that note, shall we go free him up from that net?"
"If we can drop him in the moat on the way out."
Some ten minutes later a rather wet Gilan sat between his two mentors (or 'Second Dad' and 'Third Dad') with a large cup of warm coffee they had provided him. Though unaware of their earlier discussion, he felt an even stronger sense of comradery between the three of them than usually.
His smile widened when he saw young ranger Alistair walking towards their group. He considered himself perhaps more of an older brother to the boy than a father figure, but they definitely felt as family. And considering the rate at which Jenny kept declining his marriage proposals, he would just have to accidentally adopt his next apprentice the way Halt had done if he wanted to have children.
To his pleasure Gilan noticed that the prospect of training another apprentice did not scare him the way it once had.